One year after inauguration, Tinubu ready to sack underperforming ministers

By solacebase.com On May 26, 2024

Bola Tinubu, SERAP, Asset, — President Bola Ahmed Tinubu

The Special Adviser to Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has said the president is ready to sack underperforming ministers who fail to deliver on targets set for them.

According to Sunday PUNCH, Onanuga said while inaugurating his 48 ministers, advisers, and other aides, Tinubu had urged them to put aside their personal interests and focus on his government’s immediate concern of pulling Nigeria out of poverty.

The President gave the advice at the close of a three-day retreat for ministers, permanent secretaries, presidential aides, and other top government officials at the State House, Abuja, last year after they were appointed.

“We have gathered here to shape the future, no threat about it. The responsibilities we bear are not just titles; they are the hopes and aspirations of millions of Nigerians. You might be ready to forget about the rest of the world but as a Nigerian, let’s go out there, let’s bond together and make sure our country is fully recovered from elephantiasis.”

Meanwhile, there have been some disquiet around the country as Tinubu counts days to his first anniversary. From rising inflation to insecurity and a shaky exchange rate, the country, according to analysts, still has a long way to go.

As of April 2024, the headline inflation rate increased to 33.69 per cent relative to the March 2024 headline inflation rate, which was 33.20 per cent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

In February, the headline inflation rate increased to 31.70 per cent relative to the January 2024 headline inflation rate, which was 29.90 per cent.

Meanwhile, the February 2024 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 1.80 per cent (five points), when compared to the January 2024 headline inflation rate.

However, Onanuga insisted that the President had done well given what he met on the ground.

While promising that the administration would deliver more on its promises in the next 12 months, the president’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy said Tinubu would sack ministers who failed to perform and meet the targets set for them.

“President Tinubu has already told them (the ministers) they will go if they can’t perform. He told them at the retreat last year that the government has an eight-point agenda, and he expects the ministers to deliver on it. Those who are found wanting would have to go. But, as of today, the President has not made any decision on that.”

Onanuga also stated that while the President had not announced that he would reshuffle his cabinet, he wanted them to be accountable, adding that that was why he asked them to present their scorecards, even though they had only spent eight months in office.

“The president has not said he is going to reshuffle. Let me explain something. None of those ministers have spent one year in office. They came in last August. The president wants them to be accountable. That’s why he told them to come out and give their scorecards, to talk about what they have done in the last eight months. When you see what they have done, you cannot but give this government, in its first year, a 7/10 for the various achievements that his ministers and, by extension, his government have achieved.”